Opting out of My Health Records? Here’s what you get with the status quo

Australians have just under three months to decide whether they want a My Health Record, which would allow the various health professionals who look after them to access and share their health information. From October 15, those who haven’t opted in or out will have a record automatically generated.

In emergency situations, access to information from My Health Records about allergies, medicines and health conditions can save lives. Day to day, it will provide benefits such as reminding us when we last had a tetanus shot, or allowing a back-up GP to access the results of a recent blood test so we don’t need another.

Efficiencies generated by My Health Records, including reduced duplication of tests, are projected to save more than A$300 million over three years.

Most arguments for opting out revolve around the security of health data in centralised record systems. But if you’re opting out of My Health Records, you’re opting in to “business as usual”. So it’s important to know what the current system looks like.

As you read this, reams of medical data are being sent between health professionals in the mail, through conversations (on the phone or in person), and in small pockets of secure messaging. This includes emails, text messages and faxes.

In 2016, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners recommended ceasing the use of fax machines within three years, noting that slow communication between health providers could result in significant medical errors.

Health services and systems have long known the limitations of paper records – which is why you already have several electronic medical records.

When you visit your GP, your consultation data will typically be stored electronically in a GP computer practice system such as Medical Director.

Any prescriptions will be stored on another computer system at your local pharmacy. Data on all dispensing transactions is also sent to higher-level government repositories.

If you are unwell enough to need a visit to hospital, more of your health data will be stored in another separate hospital system. This system may be mainly paper, fully electronic, or somewhere in the middle, which is the situation for most hospitals across most of Australia. Only three Australian hospitals have highly automated medical records.

In hybrid paper-electronic systems, paper documents may be scanned into your electronic record – creating two copies of the same information and thus doubling the opportunity for data breaches.

Many people would assume that these software systems are in some way compatible. They’re not. There isn’t even one software platform for each of these parts of the health-care system; there are multiple platforms available to GPs, pathology labs, hospitals and other practices.

Your My Health Record will contain summaries and subsets of all these types of data that are critical to your health care – if you maintain the general setting – as well as more detailed sources of the electronic data that already exists today in multiple locations.

Australians are understandably concerned about hackers breaching the government’s aggregated data system. But there is comparatively little concern about their local GP clinic, pharmacy, imaging centre or hospital being hacked. Yet these systems have far less financial investment, no overarching governance authority and, at times, limited IT support.

True, each of these systems contains only a piece of your medical history. This means that if any one of them were to be hacked, you wouldn’t have all of your medical information accessed. But any argument about vulnerabilities in My Health Record data security can be more convincingly made for the present system.

It’s important to have all the facts about the status quo of health records, and what might be lost or gained through My Health Record, before deciding whether to opt in our out. If the considerable investment in My Health Record comes to nothing, the opportunity to address the limitations of the current system will have been lost.

One Comment

Jane

I’m not wanting business as usual. I’m wanting more privacy than we have at the moment, more opportunities to say no to ehealth. To keep the fax machine and be able to refuse the online transfer of information. To be able to ask for paper alone. So no, it’s not business as usual I’m wanting, it’s for my privacy to actually be respected.

About Croakey

Croakey is a social journalism project that enables debate and investigations of health issues and policy. We connect, collaborate, and evolve.
We pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of the country where we live, work and travel upon, and to the Elders, past, present and future.
Read more here.

Contact Croakey

Get croakey things

More info

What others say

It is polite and political, informative and inspiring. Active engagement is what Croakey does – and I like it!

Professor Kerry ArabenaChair of Indigenous Health, The University of Melbourne

If news doesn’t make you squirm it’s simply propaganda. Croakey’s unique blend of activism, humour and plain good reporting makes it an essential - if not always comfortable - read!

Professor Virginia BarbourExecutive Officer, Australian Open Access Support Group, Chair, COPE, Professor, School of Medicine, Griffith University

Croakey is an important part of the health landscape providing progressive, current and incisive commentary.

Professor Fran BaumProfessor of Public Health, Flinders University

Croakey is terrific. Thought provoking, well researched information….and easy to read. A great combination.

Professor Kate ConigraveProfessor Addiction Medicine, The University of Sydney

Croakey has been a platform which has encouraged Aboriginal voice and actively sought it out. I started out as a reader, then followed on Twitter, was a guest tweeter on @WePublic health, and have become a contributor.

Croakey is now well established as compulsory reading for influencers and observers in health and medicine in Australia and internationally – and rightly so.

John FlanneryPublic Affairs Director, Australian Medical Association

Croakey provides an informed voice to the health, equity and environmental debates, and is helping mobilise the necessary political and popular support for a radical break from the complacent and compartmentalized attitude that still dominates much of the political agenda.

Professor Sharon FrielDirector and Professor of Health Equity Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), Director, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, The Australian National University

From a crowded inbox, Croakey always leaps to my attention. It delivers views and information on a wide range of issues of relevance to rural and remote health and wellbeing.

Gordon GregoryNational Rural Health Alliance

Croakey is health media rather than medical media. You should be reading it every day if you're interested in health services or population health.

Ben Harris-RoxasZEST Health Strategies

Croakey provides snappy, expert views on the whole spectrum of public health issues, from equity to efficiency, from determinants to prevention to management.

Professor Jon KarnonSchool of Population Health, University of Adelaide; President of the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand

Croakey has served splendidly as an independent voice in the health policy arena.

Emeritus Professor Stephen LeederThe University of Sydney

Time and again I go to Croakey to understand the politics behind public health because Croakey sorts the wheat from the chaff.

Dr Mark LockResearch Fellow, The University of Newcastle

I love the context and clarity that Croakey's contributors bring to very complex issues. And the merch.

Marie McInerneyjournalist, editor, Croakey moderator

Croakey has pioneered an unprecedented role in providing an open forum for the revelation and exchange of thinking on health in Australia.

Mark Metherellhealth journalist, CHF

Croakey - like a sore throat spreading amongst friends - helps to spread healthy ideas rapidly through the blog and the Twittersphere. Thank you Croakey.

Michael MoorePublic Health Association of Australia

Croakey - Australia's healthiest news-site!

Former MP, Rob Oakeshott

If you work in the health area – and especially if you are a policy wonk, a political nerd, or a news fiend – then Croakey Blog is an essential component of your life.

Lesley RussellAdj Assoc Professor at Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney, Visiting Fellow, Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, Australian National University

The diversity of authors and timeliness of posts are very much appreciated. Bring me more of this!

One of my favourite things about Croakey is the active engagement of so many people with a passion for equity and public health.

Melissa Sweetpublic health journalist, Croakey founder, PhD candidate

Croakey cuts through health care professional and organisational interests with edgy critiques about the diverse communities they are there for. In other words, you call BS on those with self interest.

Jason TrethowanCEO PHN Western Victoria

Croakey is a must for anybody looking to stay on the cutting edge of health news.

Alison VerhoevenAustralian Healthcare and Hospitals Association

So happy to be creating and coding for such a dedicated, professional and good-humored team.

Mitchell WardArtistic Director of Rock Lily Design and Croakey

If you care about a public health issue, or want others to care, get it online and get it on Croakey.

Croakey is a space that invites us to to challenge and interrogate our practice and our policy.

Mary FreerChange Day Australia

Croakey is a valuable voice in the health space

Catherine KingShadow Minister for Health

Croakey is a must read for anyone who craves the public health stories that no one else reports.

Dr Becky FreemanSydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney

We love the difference Croakey makes to the health conversation in Australia.

Professors Marc Tennant, Estie Kruger and Kate Dyson International Research Collaborative, Oral Health and Equity, The University of Western Australia.

The broad mix of contributors, topics and prolific tweets combine to make it a valuable and lively source of news and food for thought for all Australians.

Shauna Hurley Communications Manager, Cochrane Australia School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Croakey is the platform where health issues are dissected from every angle – from the complex impact on health arising from social, economic and environmental policies, to the influence of vested interests on public health, and insightful analysis of health care policies.

Marita Hefler Researcher, News Editor, BMJ Tobacco Control

Croakey gives me the best independent and most relevant public health news and views.

Croakey has, over some years, provided a platform for debate about health policy, planning, funding and services. There aren’t enough places for these debates, and important issues affecting the health of our community risk going unexplored. Croakey helps to fill this hole.

Croakey is one of the few places where public health "activists" can vent their spleen...It's also a useful place for journalists/media to find contacts who can speak intelligently on public health issues.

Dr Rosemary Stanton OAM Public health nutrition "activist"

Intelligence and thoughtfulness are pre-requisite foundations for a civilised society’s media, and Croakey rises above the mundanity of most Australian efforts to remind us that smart, switched-on writers and thinkers are still out there